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You can't just blame the actors when it's a line here and there. The director and editors are complicit, as they might go for the blandest or most scenery chewing takes.

Yeah, but would a director tell any actor to do what McCready did as Dr. Carter? He was fine delivering his recorded warning, but the death cry was cringe-worthy. Again, IMO, that was the one and only bad acting moment in an episode played seriously--often grim, with great effect.

Honestly, you never really know what you've got til you see the footage. Sometimes something that looked great on set set is terrible through the camera and vice versa, especially with something as easy to get wrong as a death scream.

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"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
—Will Rogers

I thought Morgan Woodward was good in both his appearances. However, he was highly critical of his own work in "Dagger of the Mind", thinking he went over the line (he was more comfortable playing villains in westerns). As a former theatre major, I like filmed science fiction because of its artificialness and theatricality while delivering a message. To me, Star Trek does that better than anyone else.

I disagree with anyone who would say that Morgan Woodward's performances were terrible. I liked his performance a lot in "Dagger of the Mind" and I personally think that his performance as Captain Tracey in "The Omega Glory" made the episode much better.

Morgan Woodward was not bad, he was "over the top" and as a result gave a great performance. Now Lazarus in Alternative factor, he was just bad.

Woodward was fantastic in "The Omega Glory," a natrual progression going from manipulative control--even sinister, to hateful, feverish and just plain immoral in his twisting of the Yang's Holy Book. He was one of the best villains of any ST series, and was more than a match for Kirk--he did not roll over for the hero just for the story to reach its conclusion.

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"...to be like God, you have the power to make the world anything you want it to be."

Morgan Woodward was not bad, he was "over the top" and as a result gave a great performance. Now Lazarus in Alternative factor, he was just bad.

Woodward was fantastic in "The Omega Glory," a natrual progression going from manipulative control--even sinister, to hateful, feverish and just plain immoral in his twisting of the Yang's Holy Book. He was one of the best villains of any ST series, and was more than a match for Kirk--he did not roll over for the hero just for the story to reach its conclusion.

I've never been a fan of Frank Gorshin's performance in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield". It's been a while since I watched it last, but my memory of the episode is primarily of Gorshin pausing every time he had to say "Cheron", as though he was trying to remember how it was supposed to be pronounced. And I'm pretty sure he pronounced it in at least two different ways.

I don't fault the actors in "Mark of Gideon" given what they had to work with.

The best performance was by the fake Enterprise, which was just one of the story's idiocies - even a Federation member planet would have a hard time faking a whole large starship well enough to fool its captain for even a microsecond.

Gorshin redeemed his approach to Bele by the way he said "I once heard that on some of your planets people believe they are descended from ...apes."

Even Kirk sometimes pronounced a name in two different ways; in one episode he pronounced Kyle as "Cowell" throughout.

Even Kirk sometimes pronounced a name in two different ways; in one episode he pronounced Kyle as "Cowell" throughout.

On TOS, sometimes the same actor would play different characters, in different episodes. Was John Winston supposed to have been "Kyle" is that episode?

That happened in "The Immunity Syndrome" (space amoeba). Memory Alpha mentions Shatner consistently mispronouncing Kyle's name. But it also mentions John Winston wearing a red shirt and a gold shirt (to match viewscreen stock footage). So maybe we can in-universe explain it as Kyle having a doppelganger who never appeared again.

Gorshin redeemed his approach to Bele by the way he said "I once heard that on some of your planets people believe they are descended from ...apes."

I thought he played that pause and "apes" line for all the racist intent it was worth, and it worked to establish his true beliefs. Gorshin had range, and not once have I read or heard anyone say they thought of his Riddler while watching the episode. In other words, he was not a one-note performer.

In fact, the episode's other guest star--Lou Antonio-- effectively played the hot-headed political revolutionary on ST, then be just as effective playing a dumb hillbilly on sitcoms like The Monkees.

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"...to be like God, you have the power to make the world anything you want it to be."